I was able to match my World of Hyatt Globalist to Hilton Honors Diamond. It took 3 USA working days for me to receive the status confirmation email from Hilton. Their website mentioned one should receive the reply within 3-5 business days. When you receive the email reply from Hilton regarding your status challenge outcome, if it’s approved, it will also state the date where you would need to meet the requirement. It’s 90 days from the day you received the email.

What are the benefits of having status with Hilton?

Here’s a list of Gold member’s benefits:

25% Elite Status Bonus

5th Night Free

Space-available upgrade to a preferred room

If you are a Hilton Honors guest with Gold status, you and up to one additional registered guest in the same room will be granted complimentary access to the Executive Floor Lounge only if you receive a room upgrade to the Executive Floor or an upgrade to a room type that confers Executive Floor Lounge access benefits.

Here’s a list of Diamond member’s benefits:

50% Elite Status Bonus

5th Night Free

Space-available upgrade to a preferred room

If you are a Hilton Honors guest with Diamond status, you and up to one additional registered guest in the same room will always enjoy complimentary access to the Executive Floor Lounge, even if you do not receive a room upgrade to the Executive Floor.

Hilton Diamond Status Match 2017 – Why do it?

Initially I was not too interested with the Hilton status match but decided to give it a second thought.Here’s what convinced me to go for this status match:

Gold and Diamond members get executive lounge access and complimentary breakfast for two people. We highly value this, especially as it can easily be a large brunch that keeps you full until dinner.

I could benefit from the current Hilton Diamond triple points promotion

The World of Hyatt program in my opinion did not meet my expectations for the benefits it claims to give its guests with status. I had stayed with them 3 times as a Globalist at different properties but was not lucky enough to be granted the suite upgrade upon check in, a perk highly advertised for Globalist member. I am honestly quite disappointed. Not to be confused, all hotel stays were pleasant, and rooms were still at the Hyatt standard.

I have always wanted to check out Waldorf Astoria’s properties, which are part of the Hilton greater chain of properties.

I have a few upcoming trips which I could easily swap from Hyatt to Hilton.

Hilton Diamond Status Match 2017 – How?

Assuming that you want to get the best investment for your money, and to complete the Diamond status match around South East Asia, here’s my recommendations and they are partially my plan too.

The easiest, most instantaneous way is to purchase Hilton Honor points. You will need a total of 80,000 Hilton Honor points for 8 x 10,000 stays. With the current 100% bonus points promotion one could purchase it for USD$400.00 (~SGD$558) aka 40,000 points + 40,000 bonus points.

When I was almost certain that I was going to go for the above method, I found out that some properties cost between USD$60 and USD$80 a night. Then I realized with the upcoming Hilton Diamond Triple Points promotion I could earn a couple of Hilton Honor points and credit card miles if I pay for my stay. I figured that would be a nicer deal.

So what I did was as follows:

Redeem the current Hilton Honors points I have for reward stays

Pay for some of my upcoming Hilton stays

Purchase some Honors points via the current 100% promotion. I know I’m going to use it in the future anyway.

Hilton Diamond Status Match 2017 – Overall Impression

The biggest motivation of this status match is to be able to retain the status until March 2019, that’s around 2 years. We will surely be staying in a couple of Hilton properties within these period, especially since their list of properties is extensive and are all over the world. I’ll update all my Hilton stays here too, so come back for more updates.

While this article focuses on the 8 stays Diamond status match, I think if 8 stays are a bit too much for you, it may be worth it to do the 4 stays Gold status match. That’s probably the easiest way to earn a useful hotel loyalty program’s elite status. It may also be the cheapest way for ~SGD229.